INTRODUCTION
Spiritual leadership is the knowing where
God wants His people to be and ensuring that he (the leader) takes them
there, either by taking several initiatives to use God's methods to get them
there in total reliance on God's power. Therefore, the goal of spiritual
leadership is that people come to know God and to glorify him in all that they
do. Spiritual leadership is aimed not so much at directing people, but in
changing their lives and connecting them to God. Hence, we must make it our aim
to develop persons rather than dictate plans for them. You can get people to do
what you want, but if they don't change in their heart you have not led them
spiritually. You have not taken them to where God wants them to be.
Everyone has the responsibility of leadership in
some relationships. But my concern now is on the characteristics, qualities,
virtues that a person must have in order to be a spiritual leader who excels
both in the quality of his direction and the numbers of people who follow him.
Therefore, the ultimate goal of spiritual leadership is that other people might
come to glorify God, that is, they might so feel and think and act as to
magnify the true character of God.
Here are some coded qualities to enhance a leader:
1. TACTFUL:
Paul said in Col. 4:5,
6,
"Conduct yourself wisely toward
outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious,
seasoned with salt, to know how it is necessary to answer each one."
And the writer of Proverbs said, "A
word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver"
(Prov. 25:11). We must remember that leaders are aiming to change hearts, not
just to get jobs done. Therefore, making people unfriendly unnecessarily is
self-defeating. Tact is that quality of grace that wins the confidence of
people who are sure you won't do or say something stupid. You can't inspire
people to hang their heads in embarrassment at the inappropriate and
insensitive things you say or do. Tact is especially needed in a leader to help
cope with embarrassing or tragic situations.
For example, very often when you are leading a
group someone will say something totally irrelevant, which is recognized to be
very foolish by everyone in the group. A tactful leader must be able to divert
the attention of the group back to the main course of the discussion without
heaping scorn upon the individual.
The tact of a
leader must demonstrate itself in forthright confrontation. The person who is
unwilling to approach a person who needs admonition or rebuke will not be a
successful spiritual leader. Combined with his judgment of people's character,
a leader's tact will enable him to handle delicate negotiations and opposing
viewpoints. His choice of words will be of good judgment rather than awkward.
2. A GOOD JUDGE
OF CHARACTER:
Jesus knew the
hearts of men (Jn. 2:17)
and he urged us to be perceptive in assessing others (Mt. 7:15).
Leaders must know who is fit for what kind of work. Good leaders have good
noses. They can detect potential when they see it in a beginner. They can hear
in a short time the echoes of pride and hypocrisy and worldliness, and then try
to caution rightly. The spiritual leader steers a careful course between the
dangers of rigid description on the one hand and indifference on the other
hand.
3. ABLE TO TEACH:
According to 1 Tim. 3:2
“anyone who aspires to the office of
overseer in the church should be able to teach.” What is a good teacher? I
think a good teacher has at least the following characteristics.
Ø A good teacher
asks himself the hardest questions, works through to answer them, and then
frames provocative questions for his learners to stimulate their thinking.
Ø A good teacher
analyzes his subject matter into parts and sees relationships and discovers the
unity of the whole.
Ø A good teacher
knows the problems learners will have with his subject matter and encourages
them and gets them over the humps of discouragement.
Ø A good teacher
foresees objections and thinks them through so that he can answer them
intelligently.
Ø A good teacher
can put himself in the place of a variety of learners and therefore explain
hard things in terms that are clear from their standpoint.
Ø A good teacher is
concrete, not abstract, specific not general, precise not vague, vulnerable not
evasive.
The goal of a
good teacher is the transformation of all of life and thought into a
Christ-honoring unity.
4. A HARD THINKER:
"Be
babes in evil, but in thinking be mature!"
(1 Cor. 14:20).
It is not easy to be a leader of people who can outthink you. A leader must be
one who, when he sees a set of circumstances, thinks about it. He sits down
with pad and pencil, pictures events, writes them down and creates a template.
He tests all things with his mind and holds fast to what is good (1 Thes. 5:21).
He weighs things and considers pros and cons and always has a significant
rationale for the decisions that he makes. Careful and rigorous thought is not
contrary to a reliance on prayer and divine revelation. The apostle Paul said
to Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:7, "Think
over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything."
In other words, God's way of imparting to us insight is not to short-circuit
the intellectual process.
5. ENERGETIC
Lazy people cannot be leaders. Spiritual
leaders "redeem the time" (Eph. 5:16).
They work while it is day, because they know that night comes when no man can
work (John 9:4).
They "do not grow weary in well
doing" for they know that in due season they shall reap if they do not
lose heart (Gal. 6:9).
They are "steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor
is not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58). But they do not take credit for this great
energy or boast in their efforts because they say with the apostle Paul, "I worked harder than any of them,
though it was not I but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Cor. 15:10).
And: "For this I toil, striving with
all the energy which He mightily inspires within me" (Col. 1:29).
The world is run by tired men, someone has
said. A leader must learn to live with pressure. None of us accomplishes
very much without deadlines and deadlines always create a sense of pressure.
A leader does not see the pressure of work as a curse but as a glory. He does
not desire to fritter away his life in excess leisure. He loves to be
productive. And he copes with the pressure and prevents it from becoming
worrisome.
6.
SELF-CONTROLLED
By self-controlled I do not mean prim,
proper and unemotional, but rather master of our drives. If we are to lead
others toward God, we cannot be led ourselves toward the world. According to Gal. 5:23
self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. It is not mere willpower, but it is appropriating the power of God to get mastery
over our emotions and our appetites that could lead us astray or
cause us to occupy our time with fruitless endeavors. In 1 Cor. 6:12
Paul says, "All things are lawful
for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything."
The Christian leader
must ruthlessly examine his life to see whether he is the least enslaved by
television, alcohol, 2go, whatsapp, facebook, twitter, coffee, golf, computer
games, fishing, Playboy, masturbation, good food. Paul said in 1 Cor. 9:25,
"Every athlete exercises
self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we
an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the
air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I
myself should be disqualified." And he says in Gal. 5:24,
"Those who belong to Christ have
crucified the flesh with its passion and desires." Spiritual leaders
ruthlessly track down bad habits and break them by the power of the Spirit.
They hear and follow Rom. 8:13, " For if
ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Spiritual leaders long to be
free from everything that hinders their fullest delight in God and service of
others.
Title : QUALITIES OF A GOOD SPIRITUAL LEADER
Description : INTRODUCTION Spiritual leadership is the knowing where God wants His people to be and ensuring that he (the leader) takes them there, e...